One thing you can never say about Dragon kits is they don’t give you a whole bunch of plastic for your outlay of freshly printed samolians.

I’m sure the aftermarket folks will work their magic in resin and brass for this kit, but in reality, little of it is necessary to the builder who wants a neat, well detailed miniature of the prototype for his collection. It’s all right here in the box.

As we’ve said, if you like lots of plastic, there must be half a dead dinosaur in this box. Beaucoup interior parts including the requisite cockpit goodies are there along with nose cannon bay, multi-part wheel wells and two very nice “bonus” engines, which you do not have to use if the mood doesn’t strike you. There are no corresponding “open” cowling pieces to go along with them, so without modifying the closed covers it’s pretty much an all or nothing proposition if you want to mount one or both Daimlers exposed.

The genesis of the modern all-gun warship occurred when Jackie Fisher, who was for a time Great Britain's First Sea Lord, serving with Winston Churchill, First Lord, during WWI, designed the first fast, big-gun battleship named HMS Dreadnought, a name subsequently given to all ships of that class. Fisher was determined that the prime characteristics of a superior warship were found in two things: speed and firepower. Consequently, this same thinking that produced the Dreadnoughts also created the first Battlecruiser, HMS Invincible, which was basically a somewhat smaller, faster ship, more lightly armored than the battleships, but almost as heavily armed. As the Dreadnoughts made all other battleships obsolete, so the Battlecruisers made all other cruisers instantly obsolete.

Model Art No. 41 Autumn 2011 is devoted to several classes of more obscure Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships in WW2. Specifically, Katori class light/training cruisers, Hatsuharu class destroyers, and Fuso class battleships. For each class, you get to see builds of the most recent kits, drawings, figures and photos showing intimate details of each class/kit, and background history with photos (in Japanese of course). Scales are mostly 1/700 since 1/350 kits are not available for Katori and Hatsuharu classes yet. Battleships kits are mostly 1/350 scale model kits. Coverage is comprehensive, with emphasis on historical accuracy of appearance. This edition is perfect for those modeling these ship classes.